I Chase After Your Shadows In The Darkness
by AliceofDeath
Summary: e thing with their relationship was it could go either ways. John knew as much and for him that was what made them beautiful.(Last installment to the Phantom Thief series)


The beautiful thing about their relationship was that it could go either way, Sherlock could have hated him for the lies, John could have left him for Jim, Sherlock could have just not bothered to save his life, John could have been ignorant and wait for 3 years or They would have found each other again and be together for the years to come. This much John knew and he was of course just as prepared for anything Sherlock might have done.

He could soldier on, even when he can't.

But what made their reunion so real and heart breakingly touching was that Sherlock had punched him (he deserved that, he did) and then kissed him for the life of his. They were no longer in their twenties, but God did they act like that for the next few months before acting like the men they should be in their mid life. It was filled with despair, passion, hope and love and so much relief because they are here NOW. Free of lies and half truths and secrets about the past of John and Nero, John and Jim. Because now in Sherlock's arms he is merely John. That trauma surgeon who graduated faster than anyone could have imagined. He was John who now carried a psychosomatic limp, John who is now Sherlock's and just that blogger and doctor. Friend and Lover all rolled into one with out the complications of being Nero.

Just John.

It was comforting, somehow he didn't know when Nero started to chain him but that's not quite true either. Perhaps the weightlessness he feels has to do with the knowledge he could be open to Sherlock and not worry that he would be hated and locked up. That there was finally nothing stopping him from telling Sherlock the truth he deserves. Even if the man knew it from the letters or stories.

But that's it, the reason why he has to tell them again to Sherlock. For him to understand how deeply intricate he was with Jim before Sherlock, How it all started with him stealing back Mary's bear and other trinkets to give it back to their rightful owners and not for it to truly began until he met Jim that loved him and he loved back, that everything became fun when he met Sherlock and god did he want to steal him that night.

That he became a Thief because he was bored and he wanted something adventurous and dangerous.

And until he met Sherlock, Jim and Moriarty were the ones who gave him that but they were not enough. That after they met he wanted to meet Sherlock and wanted to tell him that he had his heart right from the start. How he was different from his conquests both as John and Nero, different from Jim who has a special place in his heart. To him, Sherlock is his greatest treasure,one he would be foolish to give up.

He once read in a book that it was difficult to come by a great love and how lucky it was to come by to two. Jim had passed and now he does not want to waste the chance given to him to be with Sherlock.

It would be difficult, there would fights and disagreements, there would be nightmares to navigate to and 5 years and more worth of pain that they would have to heal but they had the rest of their lives to do that. All the time in the world now that both of them had matured. It was tough,so is life but they would get by. They always would.

And so as he gazes into Sherlock's eyes, tender and loving and tainted with tears it blurred his sight but he knew that Sherlock was beautiful just like the first time they met in this rooftop. He knows that Sherlock's eyes are tainted with tears too and perhaps they were both a little bit like crazy but they were that. Sherlock and John.

The Mind and The Heart.

could survive without the other or they could not in the end it all comes down to choice.

"Did you know? You stole my heart years ago in this roof top" he said truthfully.

Sherlock smiled and "What a coincidence, You stole mine too, along with my first kiss but I guess you already knew that."

It was sappy, but it was the truth even if it was sappy. It was their first truth one told his with a straightforward look, the other with a teasing and gleeful look.

With the snow falling, and the Eiffel tower lighted up behind them as their backdrop it was a beautiful scene.

It was not perfect but it was almost perfect. But John doesn't care because perfect was boring but perfectly imperfect on the other hand...well that's them.

* * *

Truth to be told this was not how Sherlock envisioned their reunion, he expected that John would be the one to punch him not the other way around but that was what made this work. Them work because with the two of them it could have gone in a million different ways even from how they met. And yet here they were, in this rooftop where John had stolen his heart and first kiss, where Sherlock had apparently stolen his as well.

It was comforting to know that John thought of him as well.

He basked with the knowledge that John had chosen him and not Moriarty when that was the logical choice (one, John would argue with him in the future). He knew that John could have just forgotten him but he didn't. With the knowledge that John loved him as much and perhaps more than he did (but was it possible?) was comforting and it took all of his fear, doubt, pain and despair.

He could state how things might have gone, John could have remained in London 3 years and unaware of him being actually alive, he would come back and get punched because he was stupid to not trust him or John might have joined Moriarty.

And yet he learned how John and Nero was one and the same, it hurt for a while until John had forced him to the game, slowly with each letter the pain ebbed away. The game was different from what Moriarty had him play, for one he was enjoying it and no one was getting hurt, second it was John's and it told him more of the man he missed and loves from the way the ink was written to the dips of the pen on the paper.

Pragmatic. They were often pragmatic.

John knew this as well but it was fine because he was pragmatic as well and John loves him as He loves John.

And right NOW, John is here in his arms, a bit of fools they were but they were in NOW. Where he is just Sherlock who loves John, the blogger and the doctor, the friend and the lover (husband) with out the shadow of Moriarty or Nero to hide away the brilliance of this man who is utterly good and the personification of redemption or hope, he's not a poet but he knows John is someone he needs and could only hope to deserve.

But right now they are living in the moment, where they are finally together, reunited and now functioning.

The Mind and The Heart

Sherlock and John

He could have left, John could have left. Either one of them could have ended this but they didn't because they had made their choice. They still could, he could function without John and John could live without him.

It was just really a matter of choice.

He was naiive but foolish he was not, John is his choice. He has chosen a long time ago even before he realized it himself. When he had allowed John in 221 B and followed him to Paris, he had chosen to function with the heart, to allow the heart to pump up blood to him, to support him.

In doing so John had allowed the brain to sometimes take control for the heart, to give the heart to information to pump blood, simultaenously making them both live.

Now it was a matter of telling the truth.

You stole mine too, in this roof top along with my first kiss.

They were not perfect, far from it actually. They're a mess and he knows it but they were a beautiful mess.

But that's how they were work a contradicting oxymoron. That is what they are and he couldn't agree more.

* * *

This was their story, it was the end for Nero but the beginning of John (and Sherlock's).

It was far from perfect but it was beautiful,imperfect and messy.

They argued over sanitary and health safety, they bonded over corpse and experiments both medical and scientific. They had sex multiple times a day.

Comforted each other over nightmares and pain, sometimes with words, sometimes with music or just being there.

John still garnered attention from both genders, Sherlock's still sociopathic or just misanthropic.

He still has everything he stole and Sherlock does not mind at all even if Mycroft has demanded that he help return everything John stole.

John still counters with the fact that most of what they want got thrown away.

They'll have their ups and downs and sometimes get way too physical or just end up hating each other but nothing would change the fact that they were and forever would be crazy with each other.

Sherlock still drove John up to the wall (sexual or otherwise) but John won't back down and so will Sherlock because that is how it would be with them.

They'll talk and sometimes not hear each other or hear but never speak to each other.

They were John and Sherlock, Sherlock and John. The heart and the mind. The mind and the heart.

It could always go either ways with them. They knew as much but it was fine. It was them.

Nero was a legend in history, John and Sherlock was a history in making.

Both stories traveling to the future.

They've stopped chasing shadows now and simply chasing want the present and the future has for them. Perhaps no one would make the connection between Nero and John or perhaps someone would.

But that would be far into the future it would be impossible to tell anyways. But that's life and John has Sherlock now, forever and always so they'll be fine.

This is their story, A beautiful mess and perfectly imperfect.

* * *

A/N: this is the final installment of the Phantom Thief Series. Thank you for reading up until now :)

Edit 10/31/2013: I personally think this was better than the shit I first posted.


End file.
